Things are falling apart in the last installment of Pullman's latest trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, the author's last venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are taken and beverages is drunk, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to go off in search of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to expand the institution's rule. A key character, who carried young the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a commercial product, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her personal journey to rejoin with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the primary struggle in a larger battle with an controlling system which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, innovation and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel begins with the finding of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that seem to give on to alternate realities. An example of a opening seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with its leader at its helm, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and back to intuition, however, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their significance and their value is somehow essential – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean struggle between purity and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
